Is Our Lord not worth defending?
He stands before Pilate
a man who has the power
of life and death over the Lord
- or so he thinks.
"Thine own nation and chief priests
have delivered thee unto me."
If Jesus is the King of the Jews
why have His people
delivered Him up for trial
and punishment?
Our Lord may say that
if His Kingdom were of this world
then His troops would
rush to defend Him.
So why don't the troops of
Our Lord's true kingdom rush to help?
Why aren't there seraphim
swooping down from the sky
and scattering the hostile powers?
Why is this king
left at the mercy
of people who hate Him?
[PAUSE]
You obviously understand the reason.
Our Lord is become
one with us
for a very good reason.
Being saved from the Cross
by a squadron of angels
defeats the purpose.
If He is saved
then the Incarnation
is a complete failure.
But this leaves us
with a strange situation.
What kind of King
goes into the battle
single-handed
to a certain, painful death?
If Jesus is a true king,
wouldn't He send
an angel to be incarnate instead?
[PAUSE]
That's the point.
His kingdom is
not of this world.
It's not a kingdom
that we would recognise
because we think too worldly.
Our Lord is king
because He is God.
It really is as simple as that.
For us to be saved,
and made truly good,
we need true good to save us.
And God is true good
and Jesus is true God
and so Jesus is true good.
None less than the king
can save us.
This is why His Kingdom
cannot work like our kingdoms.
Our Lord rules
by directing His Creation.
He did not need to create us.
He did not need to create anything at all.
He could have just sat
in Eternity and been satisfied
with that.
But, out of love
He chooses to create us,
and chooses to save us
and chooses to glorify us.
His will be done
in Earth as it is in Heaven
and that makes Him king.
His kingdom
is a kingdom of recognising
what is true
and loving that truth.
He doesn't need defence.
So why do we defend Him?
[PAUSE]
It's not God's honour
that needs to be defended
because that honour
can't be impugned.
What we are defending
is the faith of those
who don't yet understand fully
and who might be tempted
by those who hate God.
If someone chooses to reject God,
that is on them,
and they must answer
for their choice.
But when someone has serious questions
about the church,
then we need to answer those questions
honestly and lovingly
and truly.
It is not human beings
that are against us
though they can be
the instruments of
those who hate us.
The Devil uses troops
like tools,
as simply means to his ends.
God can use us as tools, too,
that is His right as King.
But He never forgets that
we are His,
and not just playthings
but intelligent creatures
who were made for love
and to be loved.
[PAUSE]
We defend the Church
from attacks by the Devil
using Christ's protection.
It's the King that goes
into battle for us
not the other way around.
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